


The Belly of the Beast

by transubstantiate



Series: Bucky!Cap [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-24
Updated: 2014-07-24
Packaged: 2018-02-10 06:58:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2015442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transubstantiate/pseuds/transubstantiate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: the first time he meets bruce he thinks, "yes," because this is a man who has seen the belly of the beast (and he is not wrong but he is not right: bruce has seen into the beast's mind and soul but it is natasha who has been in the beast's belly, who has been swallowed by it whole and clawed her way back out). (courtesy of theladymonsters on tumblr)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Belly of the Beast

He meets Bruce on the landing pad of the Helicarrier and there’s an edge to the man’s cautious smile that speaks to Bucky’s gut (it’s his gut, it must be his gut, because his soul was Steve).

"They say you can find the cube," Bucky says.

"That all they say about me?" Bruce asks, but Bucky doesn’t reply, just watches the corners of Bruce’s mouth and the shadows in Bruce’s eyes and thinks _maybe_.

——

He stands in the middle of the fight and he needles Stark and he says “You’re just like your father,” and he watches Natasha grab Stark’s arm and

then everyone goes still and quiet because Bruce is standing in front of them, hands wrapped around Loki’s scepter, eyes bulging, and Bucky thinks _yes_.

——

But it’s Natasha who finds him later, who says, “Stay away from Banner.”

And when Bucky laughs, (hard, cold, bitter, angry) she grabs his shoulder and _shakes_ him (like a child).

That shuts him up and he looms into her space, crowding her, doing his best to intimidate her, but she just steps away from him and Fury pages her right on cue.

"Get a haircut," she tosses over her shoulder as she heads to the bridge.

——

And when the Hulk rips through the Helicarrier and Natasha almost dies, Bucky knows.

——

It’s a shift, he sees. The Hulk comes and Dr. Banner goes away.

——

(It’s not right, it’s not right, it’snotright. It’s not the same.)

——

"The truth isn’t all things to all people at all times," Natasha says, and then quieter, half to herself, "and neither am I."

——

"It’s me, it’s always me," Bucky says to her finally, watching her straighten her hair in Sam’s bathroom (and Sam, Sam who watched Bucky’s bitterness, saw into him (he doesn’t have a soul, he can’t have a soul), Sam opened his home willingly (Sam doesn’t know what he’s done)). "It’s me, locked inside my own head, watching them die, watching _him_ die, over and over and I can’t escape it, because it’s me.”

And Nat puts down the straightener and looks him in eye and she tells him about a fire and a hospital and an ocean of blood so deep that she could never hope to see the other side.

And when she says, “What do you need me to be?”

Bucky says, “You.”


End file.
